In view of the continuous growth in online retail sales in Germany up to 2021, online retail is expected to become increasingly important in the future. Due to this initial situation, a structured and comprehensive analysis of the environmental sustainability of online retail in Germany appears to be expedient and appropriate. This study focuses on the ecological effects and a breakdown into different areas of online retail, which are examined separately from each other. The four investigated areas, belonging to independent work packages, are Delivery traffic (including returns/returns), packaging (paper, plastic, reusable), digital infrastructure (data centers, servers, energy requirements), logistics centers (energy consumption and emissions from distribution and logistics centers). In addition, two other current trends in German online retail were addressed and examined separately: New business models (instant delivery, recommerce platforms, retail-as-a-service) and Sustainable consumer choices in online retail.
The most important findings at a glance:
- The delivery traffic of an average B2C parcel currently causes 790 g CO2e.
- The growth in online trade is also accompanied by an increase in packaging. The greenhouse gas emissions for one-way shipping packaging range from 20 to 756 g CO2e, depending on the material used and the size of the packaging.
- The determination of the ecological footprint of the digital infrastructure of online retail is characterized by many uncertainties and dependencies on the respective usage behavior.
- A top-down analysis of the energy consumption of logistics centers revealed emissions of 66 g CO2e per parcel.
- The three new business models under consideration (instant delivery, re-commerce and retail-as-a-service) differ from conventional online retail in just a few aspects and the impact of these differences on environmental sustainability is considered to be comparatively low.
- From an overarching perspective, it is noticeable that most of the environmental impact of a product does not occur during the retail process, but rather during the manufacturing or production process and, if applicable, during disposal.
- A total of 25 different starting points for greater sustainability in online retail were identified.
- Based on the results and starting points presented, in addition to values for an average "standard" package, a so-called "best case" and a "worst case" of a purchase process in online retail can also be run through.